The Campus Microscopy and Imaging Facility (CMIF) is requesting a Zeiss LSM 510 META. The CMIF is the core biomedical microscopy facility at the Ohio State University (OSU). The requested instrument is a basic Zeiss 510 LSM with visible lasers (no UV laser), META detector, two PMTs, five objectives on an inverted stand, and a workstation. This instrument is needed because there is no state-of-the-art confocal microscope available to the biomedical research faculty and students at OSU. Currently, the CMIF has an aging BioRad MRC 600, which is technically limited, unreliable and inadequate for the studies proposed here. On the OSU campus there are four confocals microscopes, a BioRad 1024, a Nikon PCM-2000, a Zeiss 410 and a Zeiss 510 NLO. All of these are in individual faculty labs, or only available to extremely restricted groups of faculty and certainly not to the NIH supported research community. Seven major users, with NIH funding, and four minor users with NSF or private foundation funding, are submitting this application. The NIH projects that require confocal microscopy are investigating axon sprouting in spinal cord regeneration, immune cell response to spinal cord injury, initiation of preterm labor and delivery, causes of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, IgG transport across the placenta, CIRF role as a neurotrophin in cerebellar development, and the role for serotonin in stimulating supraspinal pain. The University will provide continuing institutional support in the form of staff salary and space allocation for this instrument. Acquisition of the Zeiss 510 LSM META will significantly enhance the research programs of the major users and aid other investigators in the university community.